Oscars 2006

Gold Standard

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

JANUARY 23, 2007: This is the list of Oscar nominations, accompanied by
my personal vote, were I given one as of this morning. I also listed a few
"unfairly overlooked" items, off the top of my head. I will get to my
predictions soonish, as well as filling in the blanks of a couple of leftover
films I didn't see.

As for comments, I was pleasantly surprised to see both Pan's
Labyrinth and Children of Men -- both of which I liked -- get
more nominations that I expected, with six and three, respectively. I
was also pleasantly surprised to see Dreamgirls -- which I didn't
like -- get fewer nominations than I expected. (It leads the pack with eight nods, but three of those
are in Best Song.) Four of the five Best Picture nominees are actually good films,
which is an unusual development. And a couple of my dark horse favorites
wound up with nominations, Marie Antoinette for Costume Design and
The Black Dahlia for Cinematography. (Art School Confidential
and Inland Empire came away with nothing.)

I was also very happy to see the animated short The Little Matchgirl,
released on Disney's The Little Mermaid DVD, get a nomination. It's a heartbreakingly
lovely little film, and I'm rooting for it very strongly.

The Oscars will be announced February 25th. More later...

FEBRUARY 25, 2007: Some happy wins and some disappointments, but more good choices than not.
Two of the year's best films, The Departed and Pan's Labyrinth led the night, with
4 awards and 3 awards, respectively, though Pan's Labyrinth lost the Best Foreign Film award
to the more award-friendly The Lives of Others (a film no one will ever remember or
ever want to see again). The overrated Dreamgirls took two awards, and five years from now
people will wonder why, just as they did with Roberto Benigni. As for silver linings, the wonderful Happy Feet
beat out the more conventional Cars and Sofia Coppola's under-appreciated Marie
Antoinette picked up a surprise award for Costume Design. Even Clint Eastwood's
Letters from Iwo Jima picked up a single Oscar for Sound Editing. But the most important pair of
awards went to An Inconvenient Truth. Let's hope they inspire even more people to see it and to
take its warnings to heart. As for my predictions, I got a lousy ten right, which has
to be my worst year ever. Just wait till next year...